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OP 

BENJATilTN WOOD, OF NEW YOIJK, 

IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

MAY 16th, 1862. 



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BENJAMIN WOOD, OF NEW YOJIK, 



THE STATE OF THE UNION, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIA^ES, MAY IGxir, 1862. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

McGII.L, WITHEROW & CO.. I'RINTERS. 

1862. 



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SPEECH 



Mr. WOOT). Mr. Chairman, I have hitherto avoided troubling this House. 
Content to be a listener, without any other participation in its proceedings than 
to oppose my solemn individual nei^tive against measures which my conscience 
and my principles would not approve, I have said nothing. Indeed, sir, I have 
not had the heart to rise here and speak. A glance at this Hall, of itself, has 
been enough to prevent. When I look around and see one third of the Union 
unrepresented here, and find myself in a body, purporting to be one branch 
of the Congress of the United States, really in fact but a fragmentary part of 
it, my heart sinks within me. It appears to be a sectional body — a gathering 
of the representatives of a sectional party. With these feelings, and with this 
spirit, I have until now avoided participating in debate. 

Besides, sir, during the earlier period of this session, disaster had accompanied 
the efforts of the Federal arms. I felt that the hour of defeat was not a fit one 
in which to strive to awaken the great soul of the North to thoughts of peace ; I 
felt that something was due to the sense of mortification, something to the natu- 
ral desire to retrieve the shame of discomfiture, I hoped, too, that when victory 
should perch upon our banners, others than myself would seize the occasion to 
urge a plea in behalf of peaceable measures ; and that this Government itself, 
feeling secure and strong enough to be magnanimous, would take the lead and be 
the pioneer in opening a path for the settlement of our difficulties without further 
recourse to bloodshed. I even hoped that the leaders of the now dominant 
party, moved by the sore distress which has visited our country, would relent 
from the stern rigor of their doctrine of subjugation, and, in the flush of triumph, 



would lean a little towards a gentler policy than that which they have heretofore 
championed with so much zeal and with so little forbearance. 

I Loped in vain. The triumph came ; a long train of successes has relieved 
the North from its humiliation. The Government claims now to stand as a rock 
against which the tempest of opposition must waste itself in futile efforts. The 
partisans of the ultra war party laugh to scorn the idea that any effectual resist- 
ance can be offered to the onward march of our triumphant armies, and yet no 
single effort has been made in these congressional Halls to stay the effusion of 
blood. It has been left for me, powerless as I am, to speak the first conciliatory 
word in behalf of my countrymen. And I do it, sir, in the hope that others, 
more capable, will not be too much engrossed with the lust of conquest and the 
pride of victory, to follow my example. 

Sir, it is an ineffaceable reproach to those either deluded or wicked men who, 
in the North, by their unwearied agitation of abolition schemes, have stirred the 
embers of this strife ; it is an eternal reproach to them that, through defeat and 
victory, throughout every phase of this unhappy struggle, with the groans of their 
distressed and tortured country smiting upon their ears, they have clung, and 
still cling, with unpitying pertinacity, and even with ferocity, to the doctrine 
which has been the germ of all the mischief. With the first exulting shouts of 
Federal victories they set up the echoing cry of emancipation. With all the 
energy of fanaticism, with all the subtile arts and intrigues of scheming dema- 
gogues, with all the appliances of cunning, intellect, and patronage at their com- 
mand, even at this eventful crisis, when every American brain should be at work 
to bring about a fair and honorable peace, they have no thought, no hope, no 
duty but to propagate their creed, extending its influence into every nook and 
corner of the land, and poisoning the atmosphere of these sacred Halls with its 
interminable discussion. Openly and in secret, by the agency of the press, the 
pulpit, and the political rostrum, in the camp, in the city, and in the open field, 
they are sjjreading the contagion ; they arc innoculating the country with this 
moral pestilence which has already brought us where we are, to the very brink of 
the grave of our nationality. 

Sir, to these apostles of abolitionism will be traced hereafter whatever of evil 
has Ijefallcn or may befall our country. They arc building its sepulchre with the 
bones of their slaughtered countrymen. I do believe there arc gentlemen 
within my vision now, whoso sworn purpose, whose first desire, paramount even 
to the preservation of Koiiublicaiii.sni, is emancipation. They and their disciples 



5 

first threw the apple of discord. 'J'hcy first applied the torch, and are now more 
busy than ever with throwing fresh fuel to the iianie. Sliould history ever trace — 
which God forbid — the record of this country's ruin, that page will seem the 
strangest to those that read which shall tell of the madness and wickedness of 
the arch-fanatics of abolitionism. In the dark recesses of the temple of infamy, 
the gloomiest niches will bear the inscription of their names. 

Sir, I counsel none but a moral interference with the work of these mischief- 
makers. I would not have even fanaticism deprived of the right of free speech ! 
nor would I, in any emergency, advocate the slightest infringement by the Gov- 
ernment upon the liberty of the press. Let them sow the seeds of their infamous 
doctrine broadcast over the land. Whatever may be the danger, I will not coun- 
tenance the greater danger of establishing a dictatorship over the thoughts of my 
fellow-countrymen. 

But if the abominable theme must be brought into the Council Chambers of 
the nation, for the sake of decency, if not of justice, let it be at a more suitable 
time. If there remain one Union man at the South, let us remember that he is 
unrepresented here; that the subject of slavery particularly concerns him, and 
that it is ungenerous and unjust, if not cowardly, to take advantage of his absence 
to push forward measures in regard to the local institutions of his section ; meas- 
ures against which^were he present, he would give his earnest opposition. It will 
quench whatever remains of Union feeling at the South, if it have not already done 
so. It will destroy the last hope of a reconstruction of the Union on a friendly 
basis. It will prove that the first idea of the dominant party in the North is active 
and unwavering antagonism to slavery, and a fixed purpose to legislate it out of 
the land at all hazards. Is it thus that we are to conquer a peace ? Sir, we are 
flinging away the last chances of reconciliation as recklessly as madmen cast their 
treasures into the sea. The agitation of the subject has been the country's banc 
at every period of its history ; its discussion at this crisis is desperate self-destruc- 
tion. Is it while the magazine is beneath us and about us, bursting with the 
agencies of ruin, that we must choose to sport with the flaming torch of the 
incendiary ? Sir, until our beloved country shall be saved, the word " emanci- 
pation" should, by common consent, be banished from the language of debate in 
this assemblage. It is a spell which has wrought enough already of desolation. 
It is a hellish formula of incantation which has conjured up the fiends of discord 
and civil war ; and it never was so potent in its evil tendency as now, when it is 
being passed, like the breath of the plague, from mouth to mouth, in the Council 



6 

Chambers of the country which it has ruined. It should be spoken in a whisper and 
with a prayer linked to it, as a thing that brings a curse and spreads a pestilence. 
I despair of my country, I despair of ever living once more in a blessed Union of 
fraternal States, when I hear all around me the utterance of that ruin-breeding 
word "emancipation," mingling with the shouts of battle, the fierce huzzahs of 
triumph over fallen brothers, and the groans of our dying countrymen. 

Sir, if in place of making the negro question a subject-matter of debate, this 
Congress would take into earnest, solemn consideration some expedient for 
securing peace, I do believe that success would crown our efforts. If they 
would enter upon that task, not with hearts embittered anl intellects swayed 
by sectional antipathies and mock philanthropy, but with all their souls 
devoted to that one sacred purpose — the reconstruction of the Union and our 
redemption from civil war ; if they would do this, in the spirit of conciliation, 
of forgiveness, of tolerance, of brotherhood, and kindly feeling, it is my convic- 
tion that before the close of this eventful session, the preliminaries of a peace 
would be arranged. But while, with the obstinacy of a blind fanatic, and the 
instinct of a brutal gladiator, the first object is to promulgate a party creed, and 
the second to crush an opponent and wear the badge of victory, I see no fiiirer 
prospect than, at some distant period, reached through seas of blood and heaps 
of carnage, the forced submission of a crushed and devastated section, and the 
equally unhappy spectacle of a Government triumphant, but exhausted by its 
triumph, detested by a moity of those sovereignties that gave it birth, and gazing 
with horror and remorse upon the desolation it has wrought. 

Sir, it is not my intention to vent reproaches, even where I believe them best 
deserved. I have risen to enter my protest against the discussion, in this 
Chamber, of any anti-slavery scheme whatever at this crisis, and to offer an 
earnest appeal to this Congress that its legislation shall embrace every means of 
securing an immediate peace. If, as the Government claims, the confederate cause 
is hopeless, the loaders of the secession movement cannot be ignorant of thefactj 
and knowing it, tlicy will be naturally inclined to lend a willing ear to whatever 
proper ovcriures Ihi.s Governniciit ni:iy ])resent. At some period of this struggle 
there must be negotiation; it mu.-t be resorted to, sooner or later; why not 



now 



Is it because pride forljids that we should be the first to stretch out the hand of 
conciliation ? J leaven forefend that thousands of human lives and a country's 
welfare should depend upon so false a principle. Is it because the South has not 



been sufficiently punished, humbled, and subdued ? Then let us confess that 
chastisement and vengeance arc the objects of this war. Is it because tlie anti- 
slavery movement has not yet received a sufficient impetus ? If so, go tell it to 
the armies that have won your victories ! Make abolition the war-cry ! Place a 
banner with that device in the vanward, and lure those armies on to conquest 
with it — if you can. Your soldiers would rend the treacherous ensign into shreds, 
and would march to their homes with the same alacrity with which they pushed 
on to the battle-field. 

What, then, is the cause that withholds negotiation ? You will not parley with 
armed treason ! But you have parleyed with armed treason, if that be the word ; 
parleyed for the mere convenience of an exchange of prisoners, and other pur- 
poses to mitigate the grievances of war. It was your duty so to do. And shall 
you not do so to accomplish all that your troops are fighting for — the reconstruc- 
tion of the Union ? 

Let us suppose that the South is anxious to embrace an opportunity of return, 
and is withheld from making advances by doubts as to the intentions of the North : 
is it not right that we should confer with them, that those doubts may be removed ? 
What do the people care for such miserable punctilios in the hour of a nation's 
agony ? Sir, an honorable peace is within the grasp of this Congress without 
further bloodshed. This Congress knows that it is so, and when the people shall 
realize that it is only the infamous design to strengthen the anti-slavery move- 
ment that prevents an effort to obtain that peace, woe to the chiefs of the aboli- 
tion party in the land. 

But, enough of them. Words are thrown away upon their stubborn fanaticism. 
I appeal with better hope to the loftier feelings that should pervade humanity, 
and especially pervade this august assemblage ; that should, by the nature of its 
sacred functions, be far removed from the miserable ambition of reducing a sec- 
tion of our common country to the extreme and therefore dangerous condition of 
despair. 

Sir, there may be a fascination in the gory magnificence of war. There may 
be a craving for martial glories in the hearts of men, and an instinct of conten- 
tion which we share in common with the brute creation. But if ever there can 
be a time when a more Christian impulse should possess our souls, it is now ; 
now, when triumph and the consciousness of strength give us the noble privilege of 
extending the hand of conciliation without fear of degradation, or of self-reproach 
for cowardice. If adversity has been our excuse for sternness, let success be our 



•8 

plea for magnanimitj. I'rovidence has placed within the reach of the North a 
greater triumph than countless armed legions could conquer ; the triumph of sub- 
duing a brave enemy with a generous and merciful policy, that will disarm resent- 
ment and rekindle the old brotherly flame that perhaps is not yet totally extinct. 
For, after all, they arc our brothers, sir ; and some softening of the stern Roman 
rigor which our rulers have assumed is due to that brotherhood, which, by 
untimely severity, may be canceled now forever. There are gentlemen who will 
say that the South must be subdued ; that every armed southerner must throw 
down his weapon and sue for mercy. Should a freeman ask so much of his brother 
freeman "::' Would they be worthy of companionship in our fraternity, being 
reclaimed at such a sacrifice of manly feeling? What would you have them do? 
Would you have them crouch and cringe and strew their heads with ashes and 
kneel at your gates for readmission ? They are Americans, sir, and will not 
do It. No I though Roanoke and Henry and Donelson should be re-enacted 
from day to day through the lapse of bloody years, they will not do it. 
Give them some chance for an honorable return, or you will wipe out every 
hope, and the two sections will be twain forever. Yes, sir ! you may link them 
to each other with chains, and pin their destinies together with bayonets, but at 
heart they will be twain forever. They are the children of the same heroic stock, 
the joint inheritors with ourselves of the precious legacy of freedom ; and it is 
a sacrilege and an insult to the memories of the past, that so many, sir, should 
sit in your presence here to-day to goad them on to desperate resistance, and so 
few — alas! so very few — to mediate and restrain. 

Of those few, I thank my God that I am one. I am proud to proclaim it here 
beneath the dome of the Capitol. I shall proclaim it, here and everywhere, until 
the wings of peace shall be once more folded over the bleeding bosom of my 
country. I shall proclaim it aloud and honestly, although to do so would make 
me the next victim of this cruel strife. 

Sir, it may be said that I speak of peace, while its attainment, without further 
recourse to arms, remains impossible. I do not believe it impossible. What 
cifort has been made? What door has been opened through which the passions 
and ill-feelings of the contestants might pass out and reason enter? None. The 
single idea has been forced upon the people that the sword, and the sword alone, 
must decide' the issue, it has been pronounced treason to hold an opposite 
opinion. Sir, if to have but little faith in the efficacy of the sword for joining 
severed friendships, if to earnestly desire peace and deprecate the horrors of war, 



be treason, then am 1 a traitor j and I am promlor of such treason than others 
can be of their vindictive, flaming, and pretentious patriotism. 

I conjure this Congress, in the name of our suffering country, in the names of 
wives that may be widows, of children that may be orphans, in the names of gal- 
lant men, now strong in health, and who, to-morrow, may be stretched in death 
upon the gory ground, or writhing, maimed, and disfigured, with tormenting 
wounds — in the name of humanity, that sickens at the daily rec(jrd of this terri- 
ble strife, I conjure this Congress to seize at the merest chance that may exist of 
a present termination of this tragedy. Let something be attempted in the spirit 
of mediation. Sir, the people will respond to it. They will thank this (.'ongrens 
for it. They will bless this Congress for any measure that breathes of the spirit 
of reconciliation. They are weary of this war, weary in despite of the excitement 
of present victory. They will awake soon to the consciousness that such victories 
are purchased at a sacrifice terrible to contemplate ; that a national debt is 
created, which, in its rapid accumulation, is appalling — a debt which, if ever 
paid, will press like an incubus upon future generations, stunting the growth and 
paralyzing the vigor of our young Kepublicj or, if repudiated, resting a blot 
upon our annals. 

If we look abroad the spectacle tends only to our shame. AVe see the 
sceptered hands of Europe planting their royal banners upon the soil of this 
western hemisphere, which it is our natural duty to consecrate to republicanism, 
and which we might at least have guarded from the greed of foreign despots. 
The flag of Arragon and Castile flaunts in the air of San Domingo, and, united 
with the blazonries of France and England, is unfurled upon the walls of San 
Juan de Ulloa. Where may they not float a twelve months hence, if we, the nat- 
ural guardians of this continent, should still be busy dabbling in each other's 
gore ? Sir, if there must be war, let it be against the natural enemies of repub- 
licanism ; if we must humble our national pride to conciliate the British lion, 
let us make some sacrifice to win back in amity the South, that we may stand 
once again as comrades in ajms, to scourge these foreign interlopers within their 
proper limits. 

I am no advocate of bloodshed, but if a foreign war should be the alternative 

of submission to foreign insolence, I trust that I should be among the last to fall 

• prostrate that the hurricane might sweep harmless by. To subserve the schemes 

of a party, we have already humiliated the American people in the eyes of scoflBng 

Europe ! It will be a task hereafter to regain the caste we have lost in the 



10 

family of nations. No greater evil could befall us than to be forced from 
tbe position we have hitherto assumed towards foreign Powers ! I would not 
have my country swerve one inch from any vital principle of her foreign policy 
in any emergency whatever. Above all things I hold dear that national honor 
which we have ever, till of late, preserved untarnished. However gloomy may 
be the aspect of things at home, I would have our flag float as proudly as 
ever abroad, not deigning to make domestic affliction a plea for humility, an 
excuse for cowardice, or a palliation of national dishonor. Whenever the occasion 
demands that a stand should be made against foreign aggression, or a rebuke 
administered to foreign pride, or a chastisement inflicted upon foreign insolence, 
I would have the gauntlet thrown down upon the impulse of the national senti- 
ment, without reference to domestic exigencies, or pausing to measure the strong 
proportions of the foe. 

In the heat of our private discord, we seem to have forgotten that our great 
mission as a people, is to republicanize the world, to advance the principle that 
men are capable of self-government, and to check the progress of monarchy. Sir, 
we are losing ground in the fulfillment of that sacred mission, and monarchy has 
gained a new foothold, while we have been weakening our sinews with intestine 
strife. To what purpose ? Is it possible that gentlemen can hope to recon- 
struct the Union by pursuing a policy of unrelenting severity ? Can they expect 
to re-establish concord and brotherly love by pushing hostilities to the extreme 
verge ? What is the Union worth without mutual respect and reciprocal 
amity to bind tbe sections ? What ! a Union of unwilling States, driven 
into companionship at the point of the bayonet, and held there by military 
power I Such a Union would not be worth the shedding of one brave man's 
blood. We waut their hearts, or we want them not at all. And we cannot 
conquer hearts with bayonets, although they should outnumber the spears of 
Xerxes. If not brought back by negotiation, they are gone from us for- 
ever. To conquer them may be possible. To slay their soldiers, lay waste 
their lands, and burn their cities may be within ojjr power. But to hold them 
in subjection, would, in itself, be a final repudiation of the first principle of 
republicanism. Prosecute this war until you have accomplished the necessity 
of holding a subdued section in subjection, and the world will look in vain for 
a republic on the western hemisphere. 

Sir, I love to entertain the hope that our Union will be restored upon the 
foundation laid down by our lathers j and I desire no changes in the plan of that 



11 

glorious superstructure. ]5ut I am not so unnatural a worshiper of the Union 
as to seek its salvation with the destruction of those for whose wolfarc it was 
conceived ; to build it up upon the dead bodies of my countrymen. I would 
purchase its redemption otherwise than by anarchy and ruin. I would not fling 
away the substance to perpetuate the name. Every drop of blood that is shed in 
this struggle will weaken the bond of union between us. One word of concilia- 
tion at this crisis will do more to save the country than all the achievements, 
past and to come, of your victorious soldiery. 

Why should not that word go forth, even now, in the hour of the triumph of 
the Federal arms. If there has ever been a period in the history of republics 
when prolonged civil strife has f\uled to curtail the liberty of the masses, I have 
not read that history aright. Already, with one year's bitter experience, wc 
have beheld some of the dearest privileges of American citizenship wrested from 
our grasp. And bow long, at the same rate, before, upon the convenient plea 
of necessity, we shall be stripped of other rights which heretofore have made us 
deem ourselves freemen ? How long, while personal liberty even now depends 
on the nod of an official? How long, wliile free-born /Ymerican citizens can be 
left to languish in bastiles, beyond the reach of the constituted tribunals of the 
land and at the mercy of the Executive ? How long, while the press, 
the guardian of liberty, the friend of the masses, is shackled, gagged, cowed 
down to sullen silence, or, worse yet, become the minion of a party? How 
long, while voters are arrested at the polls by military process, and legislators 
are hurried oif to prison before they can assume their sacred functions ? How 
long, while the partisans of the abolition party are coining money out of the 
blood of their countrymen, parading their showy patriotism and shouting 
" Union," with their arms up to the elbows in the public Treasury ? How 
long, sir, will the people of the North, taxed beyond endurance, robbed and 
cheated by an ever-craving horde of political hyenas — how long will they have 
a choice between freedom and anarchy, between a republic and a despotism ? 
Alas ! we still cling to the name of a republic, but have we the reality ? It is 
entirely at tbe option of one man, or of a council of men, whether the citizen 
sball breathe in freedom the free air of Heaven. At the " open semmc," of the 
Executive, the gloomy portals of the Bastiles La Fayette or Warren will gape to 
receive him. And this is the Republic I was taught to love I 

Sir, this is only a symbol of what must inevitably be, should the South be 
crushed into the Uuicn. You may bring the South to terms with your bayonets, 



12 

but wlicn you have done so, you will have made a bond of air j a covenant 
whose seal will be a military despotism ; and to break it at the first opportunity 
will be an aim and a purpose on the part of the subdued section. What they 
have attempted once they will not fail to attempt again, when smarting under 
the remembrance of defeat, when cherishing the deadly hate that a war to the 
uttei'ance will engender. 

For the sake of union now and of union hereafter — not an enforced union, but 
the strong union of willing hearts — let the word of peace go forth, let the hand 
of reconciliation be extended. Why, sir, I have heard such words of bitter 
hatred expressed towards these southerners by northern lips, that I fear it may 
be already too late ever to renew the bonds of fraternity. Such sentiments, I 
have heard of implacable resentment, of thirsting vengeance, of sectional antipathy, 
as Hannibal was taught to nurture against Rome, as Rome, in her quenchless 
jealousy, conceived towards Carthage to the end. And the doom of Carthage 
may be accepted by the South rather than reunion at the bayonet's point. 

I appeal to this Congress to avert that fate as inglorious to the victor as to the 
vanquished. Let the door of negotiation be flung wide open, flung open now, 
while we can make advances with good grace, and with laurels upon our bro^:?^ 
To the winds with the doctrine that you will not treat with armed traitors. It 
is a sentiment fitter for the epoch of a purpled Roman, than for the Christian' 
age in which we live. It is the sentiment of one who rules with a rod of iron, 
not of a great and generous people who assume to rule themselves. Enough has 
been done in proof of the valor of the North, and the resources of the Govern- 
ment. Let something be now done for the sake of the past ; for the sake of 
the memories of the Revolution, of the struggle of 1812, of the battle-fields of 
Mexico ; for the sake of a Union whose cement shall be forgiveness for the past, 
and friendship and forbearance for the future. 

In place of exulting over victories, and longing for new trium])hs, how much 
more pleasant and more holy to draw a picture of the joy that will pervade many 
a now gloomy household when the glad tidings of peace shall be borne from city 
to village, from villug(! to homestead, from lip to lip, and heart to heart. A 
nation's jubilee would well repay you for some little yielding of your stern 
policy. How many arms would be outstretched, how many hearts would bound 
to give a " welcome home again!" to the war-stained volunteer. Oh ! sir, those 
meetings at the cottage threshold, those claspings at the farm-house porch, those 
cleavings of the throbbing bosoms of women to scarred and manly breasts, were 



18 

worth all the laurels that were ever snatched from hlood-staiiicd fields. /I'lu; 
news of our victories has been hailed with peaiis and illuminations; huf, with 
the first tidings of peace, there is not a hovel in the land that would not have a 
candle at its window ; not a palace that would not blaze with splendors in token 
of the advent of a blessing, priceless beyond all earthly triumphs. 

Then, sir, let us lower the points of our victorious swords, and parley with th«; 
foe while the bugle blasts of victory are yet ringing in our ears, [f we are free 
in anticipation from the peril of future reverses ; if we are sanguine that the 
Federal arms are henceforward gifted with invincibility, that is the noblest reason 
why we should say to our opponents, " pause, if you will ; reflect." Let us yield 
them one chance for reconcilement, before we drive them to the resistance of 
despair. There can be no victory where kith and kin, where brothers and fel- 
low-countrymen, where men who are bound to each other by the holiest of past 
associations, are struggling for supremacy. All is defeat ; all is disaster ; all is 
misfortune, tears, and mourning. Do not let us efface with blood every sacred 
memory that may yet bind these men to us as brothers. Give one sign of invi- 
tation before the death struggle is renewed. Let the spirit of forgiveness pass 
DfetWeen the lines of those opposing hosts, and with the blessings of Providence, 
those armed legions will take a lesson from Sabina and early Rome, whose sol- 
diers, united by domestic ties, threw down their weapons upon the battle's verge, 
and sprang to each other's embrace. 

Sir, I have spoken freely, studying only to make my words an index to my 
thought. My opinions have brought upon me the censure, often most discour- 
teously expressed, of many who differ with me; but for that I care but little. I 
am content to bide the hour that shall set me right before my countrymen. As 
I have believed the prosecution of this war to be a widening of the gulf that 
separates the sections, I have earnestly opposed it. I have always looked upon 
the subjugation of the South as a project, whose fulfillment would strike a heavy, 
perhaps a fatal blow, to true republicanism ; and although I will yield to no man 
in devotion to the Union, although I would make any and every per.'^onal sacri- 
fice to restore its glory and integrity, I will never consent, even for the sake of 
that Union, to yield up my birthright as a free man ; to sacrifice those principles 
of self-government, those rights of free speech, free thought, and personal liberty, 
without which Union is but a mockery and a name. 

It is not grandeur and extent of territory that I covet as the chief attributes of 
the Government under which I am to live. Were I one of but a single community, 



14 

insignificant in numbers, but secure in a guarantee of pure republican ministra- 
tion of affairs, I would be proud of my citizenship. But the union of a thousand 
States, each one as great and populous as the noble one among whose Repre- 
sentatives T have the honor to be, I would detest, yes, sir, in my most inmost 
heart I would detest it, if the holding together of its component parts should create 
a necessity for the assumption of despotic power. 

Self-government is the god of my political idolatry, and the Union is but a 
temple in which I have worshipped it. Should that temple be destroyed, I would 
not forsake the creed, nor would the mighty principle be buried in the ruins. I 
love and would preserve the temple, for beneath its roof are gathered the treasures 
of holy past associations ; upon its hallowed walls are inscribed the names of 
patriots, from the North and from the South, whose blood has been its cement. 
But rather would I have the glorious fabric crumble to the dust, than see the 
spirit of despotism enshrined within its sacred precincts. 

I have seen already the silent but lengthening shadow of absolutism creeping 
into this sacred asylum. And when the Executive hand, for the first time in our 
history, was interposed between the citizen and his rights, the germ was planted of 
a danger mightier than rebellion in its most gigantic phase ; for I believe encroaL^/t 
ments by an Executive to be in itself rebellion against the only sovereignty I 
acknowledge — the majesty of the people. I believe each step towards absolutism 
to be more fatal to the welfare of the Republic than any possible act within the 
power of the citizen to conceive and execute. I will resist every grasp that may 
be made upon an attribute of sovereignty not heretofore acknowledged to the Chief 
Magistracy ; for reason and instinct, no less than the fearful examples that history 
has furnished from the ashes of republics, teach me that the first step, unchecked, 
will not be the last, but only the precursor of those giant strides by which, over 
the necks of betrayed freemen, ambitious men have mounted to a throne. 

We want a Union, sir, of sovereigns, not of subjects. And that our Govern- 
ment shall extend over a vast area, tome is of less moment than that it should be 
purely, strictly, and unequivocally republican at all times and under all con- 
ditions. 

Sir, I have done. I have only to reiterate my hope and my entreaty that this 
Congress, which has in sacred charge the welfare of our country, will adopt 
some measure which may bring about a cessation of hostilities, with a view to 
negotiation. That done, I am firm in my belief that hostilitiea will not be 
resumed. 



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